NFL Suicide Pool Pick Week 17

For those of you left in your NFL suicide pool, congratulations; the money you'll win will be well earned and deserved. In Week 16, we took the New England Patriots, and the game was all but over at the blow of the whistle. The Cardinals put on one of the poorer efforts we've seen in many years, and it was a cakewalk to the final week of the season.

So now, as we come to the final weekend of play, our pick will be the San Diego Chargers.

It's actually quite amazing that San Diego even finds itself in this position, after sitting at 4-8 13 weeks into the season, but thanks to a collapse by Mike Shanahan and his boys, this is exactly where they find themselves. And in a football game where they'll have an opportunity to exact revenge on their rivals for the one they should've won earlier in Denver, look for the Bolts to do exactly that.

When San Diego has the ball, look for them to use the pass to set up the run. Rivers has been on fire of late and the rhythm he and his receivers have at the moment is tough to stop, so Denver will have to find a way to get to Rivers or he'll torch them.

Once the passing game is going, Norv Turner will turn to Tomlinson, who has also picked his game up of late, to handle the dirty work on the ground and wear down this Broncos defense. 20-30 points is well within reach.

When Denver has the ball, they'll need to pass as well to have any chance to win this week. The Broncos, who are down to their fifth or sixth RB on the season, will have very little success on the ground, as you can't just plug guys in off the street and expect them to produce against an NFL defense.

So they'll have to pass—something they did quite well in Week Two, but we don't expect them to have nearly the same success this week as they did then. The Chargers have become a little better on defense with the departure of Ted Cottrell, and we think they'll be able to make enough plays to pull out the 10-point victory.

So as we wrap this up for the 2008 season, we hope that each article helped you to make a more informed decision when choosing one team each week for your pool, and we look forward to doing this again in 2009.

Teams used

Week 16: New England Patriots

Week 15: Indianapolis Colts

Week 14: Tennessee Titans

Week 13: Baltimore Ravens

Week 12: Denver Broncos

Week 11: Miami Dolphins

Week 10: Arizona Cardinals

Week 9: Chicago Bears

Week 8: New York Jets

Week 7: Houston Texans

Week 6: Philadelphia Eagles

Week 5: Carolina Panthers

Week 4: Buffalo Bills